Featured Articles

Improving Quality of Frozen Meat

17 June 2013

Consumer perception that thawed frozen meat is poorer quality than fresh chilled meat could be because the meat has not been aged for as long.

In New Zealand, AgResearch is working on improving freezing techniques so exported frozen meat can match the quality of chilled meat, reducing cost and increasing profitability for producers, writes Stephen Doran from AgResearch.

Senior scientist muscle biochemistry and meat processing, Dr Brad Kim, is leading the project to work out the best way of freezing product to narrow consumers' perceived quality difference.

"This is likely because frozen meat generally has not gone through a sufficient ageing process prior to freezing. In that regard, chilled New Zealand meat attains higher prices than frozen meat not only because the chilled products are prime cuts, but also it is considered a higher quality product having more reliable tenderness, less drip loss and longer retail colour display life."

Although retail consumers still perceive chilled produce as higher quality, this premium frozen product could be a good option for the food service sector as it offers the flexibility and storage benefits of frozen produce but has a similar taste and tenderness to chilled.

Recent studies by AgResearch found that for meat quality attributes, such as tenderness, water-holding capacity and colour stability, differences between chilled and frozen- thawed meat could be narrowed so long as the meat is aged sufficiently prior to freezing.

"This can potentially provide an opportunity for the New Zealand meat industry by both saving costs associated with additional storage time, while also supplying high-quality meat products to the premium end of the market throughout the whole year, and without compromising important quality attributes," he said.